Craft coroner with J.Bone.

For the past few weeks I've been elbow deep in Papier-mâché...or paper mache for those who don't read Français. I'd decided on what could be a really cool costume if I could only pull it off. I really wanted to be the FLY! Specifically the version seen in the RETURN OF THE FLY!

I wanted the giant eyes and threatening mandibles, claw hand and lab coat. So I took myself back to my grade school days and crafted up a paper mache head and hand.
This is the mess I made on the dining room floor crafting my Fly helmet. You can see all the tools of the Papier-mâché craft...the thin layer of newspaper to protect the floor, bowl of flour/water mix which is your glue, the strips of paper for covering your sculpt, foam head and kid's helmet on which I originally created the tape-and-paper sculpture, bottles of alcohol for holding up hand parts for drying and the craftsman in his pajamas getting glue in his arm hair.

That's right, I didn't even bother to bathe before starting my mâché-terpiece.

This is the first version of the head almost ready for paint. Something was...bugging...me about the eyes. They weren't BUGGY enough. I tried a few different things with wads of paper before I remembered another trick learned in grade school...balloons. We would cover balloons with Papier-mâché (and once we did it with string coated in glue). When the mush is dry you simply pop the balloon, pull it out and you've got a lovely bulbous shape to work with. I cut the "balloon" in half and taped 'em to my Fly helmet.

A little extra paper for brow shapes, another few layers of Papier-mâché and you've got yourself a relatively passable fly head. You'll note I left a face area open. On dark Halloween nights you never want to cover your face or eyes. It's for safety, sure, but also because you need your mouth free for eating and drinking and eyes free for seeing all the envious looks of other Halloweeners as they eyeball your awesome costume.

Oh, and there's the hand all mashed together with crumpled mash paper as texture.

Some black spray paint, green paint and super shiny spray on lacquer and you're done. I finished this two weeks before because I had a super fun Halloween party to go to the weekend before Halloween.

The suit is from Value Village (where I do all my Halloween shopping). Lab coat was borrowed from a Doctor friend, black face make-up (also Value Village) to sorta hide my human face and the costume is complete.

Oh, and did I also have a mini version of my head on a fly's body? Yes, as a matter of fact I did. That you will see when I take some good pictures of it :)

Happy Halloween, my friends.

best,

j.

Wonder Woman Charity Art!

This here is my contribution to Wonder Woman Day! The art will be auctioned off and money will be donated to a women's shelter. I wanted to do something showing Wonder Woman's strength but also that she supports her sisters! You can check out more about the charity and Wonder Woman Day at Andy Mangel's Wonder Woman Museum.

best,
j.

Captain Hammer!

"Captain Hammer's here, hair blowing in the breeze!" Seriously, Joss Whedon and gang had better do more with Dr. Horrible. I haven't been this obsessed with something since...Avenue Q! Or maybe Sky Captain before I saw the actual movie. Seeing the movie cured me of any obsession.

Penny, with her adorable little overbite, is too much fun not to draw. Like all damsels she falls quickly under Captain Hammer's spell.

For kicks I like to call him "Captain Hammer Pants".

j.

It all goes horribly wrong!

"Here lies everything. The world I wanted at my feet." Dr. Horrible loses his lady-love and thus is created a whole new kind of evil. I love the finale song. When the music amps up into that weird, eerie sound right before Dr. Horrible enters the board room and delivers his final horrible lines gives me chills.

And here's the art minus the semi-cheesy background. I don't know that he looks so awful much like Neil Patrick Harris but I hope it at least looks like my other version of Dr. Horrible.

Definitely drawing Captain Hammer-pants next.

best,

j.

A Bright and shiny Penny!

As promised, Penny from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. I felt the need to draw her at her most angelic. In life she was torn between two loves. Three loves if you count the homeless. There's the man who saved her life but who turned out to be sort of a creep...and the man she met while doing laundry who was secretly a creep with an even deeper secret...that Dr. Horrible is really kind of a nice guy.

There's a Dr. Horrible image to go with this but I haven't finished the colours yet. Captain Hammer to follow!

best,
j.

Dr. Horrible!

Have you all seen Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? I love, love, love it! Neil Patrick Harris is absolutely perfect as the evil Dr. Horrible. The songs are stuck in my head...in a good way. I just had to sit down and doodle the characters. Naturally Dr. Horrible, the star of the show, was the first. I wanted him to be sorta goofy like a Warner Bros cartoon mad scientist. Those mad scientists always have giant craniums and big black eyebrows. Mr. Harris doesn't actually have the big black eyebrows.

j.

Wonder Woman and Friend!

Oh, Wonder Woman's off to Washington eagle friend in tow. What they'll do when they arrive the world will never know.

Let's call this another pitch that didn't get accepted. Hey, these things happen all the time. Meanwhile I'm having a ball drawing the Super Friends! What a fun book. And have you guys been reading the Tiny Titans? Art Baltazar is brilliant!

j.

Happy Birthday, Superman!

Superman first appeared in Action Comics June 1938. I drew this for my Super Friends editor just for kicks. I really dig working on that book and drawing DC's big six in that cutesy, bulky action figure based way. This also the second birthday image I've drawn with a splatted cake.

j.

SuperLad, Devil D. and Moonboy!

Here's something I drew up for a nice guy who sent me a fantastic gift (Hi Chris). In between work I was finally able to colour it up.

What more can I say? :)

It's almost summer, last week was hotter than lava and I love Devil Dinosaur!

j.

Wonder Woman in Playboy!

Exciting news brings me to post today. A buddy send me a link to the Playboy blog which has a little piece on Darwyn's and my Wonder Woman story in the recent New Frontier one-shot. Clicking the link will take you directly to the blog post...which is fairly safe-for-work. There is no nudity, though cleavage is abundant in the banner ads. My feeling is the article is light-hearted and the writer gets that Cooke and I were having a bit of fun.
It's pretty cool! Just so I'm not posting without putting up artwork, here are some sketches done recently just for fun. Wonder Woman is pretty much my default doodle character. Gosh but I love 'er!

best,

j.

Savage She-Hulk!

Ramon Perez asked a bunch of us, his artist buddies, to work up some Hulk themed images for a recent job. I like the Hulk but I've always preferred to read the adventures of She-Hulk. Blame it on John Byrne whose run on the character made me fall in love with her. I think what I liked most about her was that she wasn't on the run from anyone (or anything...or herself). With She-Hulk you have straightforward superhero adventuring un-encumbered by debilitating self-hatred or public fear (see pretty much any Hulk story).

I want to plug a few things that I hope you'll check out. First I want to point out the comic strips going on over at Transmission X. Every strip is highly reccommendable and the site itself is multiple award nominated (Shusters and Eisners).

I've finally added a link to the guy who sells my art, Albert Moy! I've recently sent Albert a bunch of pages from my work on Gotham Girls and Spider-Man: Tangled Web. He's also got my Spirit work.

And finally, if you haven't seen it yet, go check out the IRON MAN movie. Not that it needs my help to be a tremendous success...but I just loved the movie and encourage everyone to see it. It's just so nice when a comic book movie is entertaining, true to the spirit of the character, well acted, looks good and is fantastically well written. If you want to see how true Favreau and crew stuck to the Tony Stark character read (or re-read) the origin of Iron Man. The Essential Iron Man collection available at any big bookstore is the best place to find the story.

best,
j.

Wonder Tot!

Spring is sprung,
The Grass is rizz,
Do you know who my
favourite Super Tot is?

Of course Wonder Tot would be my favourite of all the Super Tots. I did this just for fun when sketching the other day. I recently got the Hot Stuff The Little Devil Collection from Dark Horse so I've been doodling Harvey proportioned characters lately. I've given you the link to the Dark Horse site and encourage fans of Hot Stuff to check out some of the other stuff they've got. I love the mini-statue of Hot Stuff Giggling That's just about the most adorable thing I've seen in a while. Too bad it's sold out! Rats!

Hope you're all enjoying this lovely Spring weather we've been having...those of you who live in a country, state, or province which is currently experiencing Spring, that is!

best,
j.

Girls of an Unliving Persuasion!

At first I titled this post "Dead Girls" because of the common theme...but that just seemed so morbid! It's Spring after all. A time of rebirth and renewal.
These are both images I came across while looking through old files. I can't even recall what year they were drawn. The top image was a pin-up for Eric Wight's graphic novel "My Dead Girlfriend". I love the look and style of Eric's artwork on that book. If you haven't seen it I recommend hunting down a copy and checking it out.

This image was drawn for Peter Milligan after he he fell or somehow injured himself. I was inking Mike Allred on the X-Statix at the time...either that or I was inking Darwyn on the Wolverine/Doop story that we did together. That's Dead Girl under the umbrella with Tike and Myles playing frisbee in the background. The little kid is kind of a Dennis the Menace type...I even swiped Ketcham's swirly knees and button nose sported by Dennis and his friends.

I always love drawing beach scenes.

best,

j.

Super Friends! Sick Days!

I'm late with this update. I've had a few sick days which, when you're self employed, actually cost money :) But I'm better now thanks to a lot of sleep, Neo-Citron and Extra Strength Tylenol!
Last week a new comic book hit the stands. Super Friends is aimed at a younger reader than might ordinarily be found in a comic shop and is based on the Mattel toy line...you've seen a few of my "wish list" toy designs here and here. Those are not actual toy designs for Mattel but my own dream toys which which most likely never come to pass.
I'm really enjoying drawing the covers for the Super Friends and can't wait for you all to see the JLApe cover!

While I was sick I didn't spend much time at my drawing table. But all that time lying around left me itching to draw despite my congestion...so I would sit in my sick bed with a pad of sketch paper and a mechanical pencil and draw whatever happened to be on tv or in my head. This is a collection of a few pages of some of my favourites. The little women are inspired by the brilliant Arthur De Pins a French artist who's work I think everyone should check out. Some of his drawings are a little "not safe for work". Though even his sex drawings are so adorably cute my Grandmother would love them.

best,
j.

Wonder Woman Wednesday!

This wednesday (I believe) marks the release of the one shot special Justice League: The New Frontier! In it you'll find many wonderous things to behold including artwork from the animated movie, a new Batman/Superman story by Darwyn Cooke, a Robin story by Dave Bullock inked by Mike Cho and a Wonder Woman story by ME! This is my take on Darwyn's New Frontier Wonder Woman in a terrific story written by Darwyn. I've been wanting to draw Wonder Woman for print ever since I started working in comics and I'm thrilled to finally have it happen. Even more so because I got to work with Cooke! And because Cooke loaded the story with pin-up girls! What more could a guy ask for in a story?!?

This is the cover so you'll know what to look for! Please check it out! I really don't think you'll be disappointed (but then I am terribly biased about this sort of thing :)

best,

j.bone

Gladiatrixes!

American Gladiators ended a few weeks ago so forgive me for only now getting around to posting my cartoon version of the ladies. I feel absolutely no shame in confessing my love for this show! I'm looking forward to another season, a toy line, animated series, and Halloween costumes.

Incidentally Hellga is my favourite!

best,
j.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Just a simple Valentine card for you all! My mom taught me to give a Valentine to every kid in the class even if certain kids had cooties or were gross! I'm sure that none of you suffer from such debilitating afflictions so to you all I happily spread the Valentine love! :)
best,
j.bone

Gemini!

Space girls are among my top favourite things to draw. If you had a time machine you could probably find something in my childhood that triggered my love of things outer spatial. Maybe it was seeing Barbarella on video at a young age. Or it could have been Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars or any one of the many B-grade Sci-Fi movies my dad would rent. More likely it's a mix of them all coupled with discovering my dad's Playboys (also at an early age :)

But if you had a time machine I can think of a lot more important things you could be doing besides spying on some poor kid discovering naked ladies and science fiction.

So, this is the last of the Horoscopes. Click on the tag at the bottom of this post to see them all one after the other. And now that they're all done I'll be making all of the images available as t-shirts. I'm inclined to use Cafepress just because I'm familiar with it but if anyone knows of a better online service please let me know.

j.
p.s. Wow! I'd posted Gemini, checked the Horoscope tag to see the rest of the Gals and did a count. I was still one short. I can't believe I forgot to post Scorpio! She's one of my favourites. Tough biker chick, that she is!

Aquarius!

Boy, this one was tough. How to draw a gal carrying two full water bottles without making her a husky body builder proved a challenge. In the end she's still husky but hopefully not unattractively so.

Only Gemini left...she's drawn but not yet coloured.

My most pressing work is this Wonder Woman story I'm doing with Cooke! Holy crap, is it ever fun. If I could just get paid to draw Wonder Woman all the time that would be cool. Although a lot of the joy is in the story that Darwyn cooked up (it's impossible not to pun on his name when you're hopelessly punny like I am). It's only six pages but we pack an awful lot of women into those six pages!!

j.

Sagittarius!

Just in time for the New Year, I've finally almost finished a series I started last year!! What can I say, I've been busy :)

Sagittarius was actually roughed out ages ago but I only now had the time to polish up the drawing and turn out a final. In researching classical Greek robes for woman I found this particular cross-your-heart-bra style wrap and thought it was an awesome way to reveal bottom cleavage. I wanted the pin-up to look like the women in Steve Reeve Hercules films, or like the Goddesses in "Clash of the Titans"...a movie accurate costume.

Hope you all had a lovely Holidays! Happy New Year!

best,
j.

Seasonal Greeting Holiday Card!

This here post compiles the evolutionary sketches of this year's Holiday Greeting card. I usually like to draw a pin-up girl for the card I'll hand out and e-mail. This year my gag was a pun on "fur" with a gal in a "fir" coat.

I tried a few different attitudes for the lady before resting on a wry smile and sarcastic line to her Husband. Her fella is meant to be enjoying the little joke he's played on his lady. But somethow it all just wasn't that funny a gag to me. It's not obvious enough in that "wakka wakka" or "wah wah" kinda bad punny way that I love jokes to be. I could think about it four ways to Sunday and it still wouldn't make the gag any better (and I do use the term loosely :)

So...I went back to the first drawing I did. Yes, my first approach was two female fir trees hanging out and gabbing. It's cutesy and definitely punny in just exactly the way I wanted. That'll teach me to over think these things so much.

Happy Holidays, everyone! I hope that however you choose to celebrate you have a wonderful week and also a Happy New Year!

best,

j.bone

Doom Patrol!

The title says it all. Just look at those awesome costumes. Why aren't there Doom Patrol toys for me to buy. I'd love the ol' twelve inch G.I. Joe size for these guys. That would be swell.

j.

It's My Element, Man!

Today I'm posting a few pencil drawings because I don't often do that (and I haven't had time to ink any of these yet :) I hope you don't mind. As I mentioned last post I've been drawing the covers for the upcoming Super Friends comic book aimed at a younger reader. The characters are based on the new toy line by Mattel. The toys are super cute! I've got Batman already and am eagerly awaiting the release of Aquaman. In a dream world the next batch of figures would include some of my favourite characters...Metamorpho, the Doom Patrol and the Metal Men. This sketch is my take on Metamorpho if he were to be one of these toys. His accessories would be a bunch of shape changing appendages that you would snap on.

Next up are some sketches of super gals. I was reading the Black Canary archive book and sketched her up in some down time.

And, of course, you already know that I LOVE Wonder Woman. These sketches were my attempt to draw her as Diana Prince (I was also reading the Wonder Woman Showcase collection recently released by DC...boy is Steve Trevor ever a dink in those stories. He's all "Marry me, angel. Marry me. I won't be happy until you marry me, Wonder Woman." Yikes. What a bore.)

Thanks for stopping by. I'll try to have some finished art for my next post.

best,

j.

Adventures of Solar Stella!

Like a lemon meringue pie comes Solar Sella, the final installment in my Women in Space triptych. I had planned to scan in some Stella pages just to show you all exactly who this gal is...unfortunately I can't find a copy of the book in my house. There must me one somewhere. I had a box of about ten of them at one point. When I find a copy I'll make sure to upload a few pages to this very blog.

And here they all are, together for the first time (here anyway). I placed Barbarella in the fore because she's really the first one.

In work news, I'm currently inking my final issue of the Spirit. It's a little bittersweet, working on this one. I'm happy to be at the end but sad that I won't be working with my good buddy, Darwyn, anymore. Not that we won't be doing other work together in the future (quite possibly the very near future ;) but it won't be the monthly team-up I've enjoyed this past year.

I've also been drawing and colouring covers for a new Super Friends book aimed at younger readers. Just as soon as I'm allowed to I'll post a few of the covers here. I absolutely love drawing DC's finest and can't wait to show you all my work.

best,

j.

I Heart Space Girls!

Long ago, back when I worked at an animation studio here in T.O., I heard that the company owned the animation rights to Barbarella! I sketched up a bunch of character ideas and tried to pitch myself as a develpment artist on the project...but alas, twas not meant to be. It was one of those projects stuck in a development black hole. Lots of art was thrown its way but nothing ever returned!

From those development drawings was born my first published comic book work, Solar Stella! I started drawing a mini-comic in my spare time using Barbarella as the jumping off point. Solar Stella was a pin-up gal lost in the farthest reaches of space. Her adventures were just meant to be good old fashioned fun with lots of cheesecake drawings. The book came out in 2000 and I'd fully intended to follow up with more Stella stories but, as it turned out, I started getting higher paying work. Stella would have to wait. And wait...and wait...
I still love the space girls and I still plan on doing more with Stella. These girls are meant to be a three piece ensemble. For some reason I had an idea to draw a trio of Space Girls with identically positioned legs. The girls are Barbarella, Dragonfly (from the movie CQ*) and eventually Solar Stella.

j.

A little Cabaret!

This is not a caricature. I recently had my caricature done by the brilliant Joe Bluhm and the equally brilliant (and adorable) Sam Gorrie. And they showed me that a caricature not only captures likeness but is also hilariously funny (if you have a sense of humour about yourself). So when I set out to do a drawing of the the talented songstress of Toronto Cabaret, Sharron Matthews, I stayed away from caricature! I'll leave caricaturing to the pros (see links to Sam and Joe). In the end I kinda think Sharron could easily be a character in an Archie comic the way I've drawn her here. The biggest problem I had with my drawing was in the colouring. I'm not 100% happy with the turquoise even though it's one of my favourite colours and one that Sharron has worn on a few occassions. But it's the best colour with her skin tone and purple background.

So just for my own pleasure I coloured up a monochromatic version. The purple makes Sharron look like a blues singer or something. I imagine she's belting out a tune originally sung by Nina Simone or Ella Fitzgerald. In reality she's probably singing "Jessie's Girl".

j.

L'il Hawkman!

What do I want for Christmas this year? (Is it too soon to talk about Christmas? My mom wouldn't say so...she usually does all her shopping in October!) I want the new line of Mattel's DC SUPER FRIENDS! They are just the cutest little toys and I want 'em all.
The first wave has Batman, Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman and Lex Luthor. I'm really hoping the toys sell well so that we'll get more Justice Leaguers like Wonder Woman, Plastic Man and Hawkman! In my dreams they'd also do Metamorpho and the original Doom Patrol...but those are only dreams...*sigh*.

I can't wait till these cute little toys are in stores!

Incidentally, I've been working on some cool stuff lately but can't spill it just yet. Soon, though.

ever yours,
j.

Back to School!

An older image but one that's apropos for today...all over the neighbourhood parents are rejoicing and children are crying. Next week all the kids are back in school! Not that it means anything to me, personally. Not anymore. But when I was a kid I actually kinda liked going back to school. I was a nerd kid and getting new notebooks, pens and pencils was exciting. Once the school work started, though, the excitement quickly vanished.

So, about the drawing...it was originally done as a pitch for an Archie-like approach to the Marvel characters. I'd been drawing a teen version of Tigra for a while and used her as the main character in the pitch (which was written by Brian McLachlan of Princess Planet fame). I think the characters are pretty self-evident but I'll still leave it up to you commenters to name them all. :)
The book never happened but it sure would have been a lot of fun.

j.

Mike Wieringo 1963 - 2007

Today ended on a very sad note...I learned that this past weekend the incredibly talented, incredibly nice Mike Wieringo passed away of heart failure. Mike was one of the sweetest guys I've ever met in comics and I'm unbelievably sad that he's gone. But my sadness must pale in comparison to that felt by friends and family members he's left behind. Their loss is immense.

I had the good fortune to work with Mike. The above four pages of art are from the SIDEKICKS Super Summer Fun Special put out by ONI press. My friend J.Torres put it together. I think Mike had written J. to tell him how much he liked our Alison Dare project, and from there a friendship grew. Mike graciously agreed to draw a segment in the Summer Fun book but only if I agreed to ink it. Honest, that's how the job was presented to me and who am I to argue with Mike Wieringo! :)

My brush was merely a tracer's tool on this job, I assure you. The pencils were printably tight. All I had to concentrate on was not ruining the faces on Mike's adorable girls ( at which I hope I was successful). I met Mike later that summer at a convention in Philadelphia and I was happy to find out what a great guy he was. He ended up sitting with some friends and I for the entire night, entertaining us with hilarious stories and jokes. It's the only time I've ever hung out with Mike in person but it truly did leave a lasting impression.

We kept in touch through e-mails over the years...and only now do I realize that I didn't write to him nearly enough. I wish I could send him another e-mail right now...

Rest in peace, Mike. We'll all miss you.

Sincerely,

J.Bone

Happy Birthday to Everyone!

Whew! Back from San Diego and happy to be home. I love San Diego...the beaches, the weather, the food. And, of course, Comic Con! Lots of news out of con. My buddy Darwyn won THREE Eisner awards. Best Single Issue for BATMAN/ THE SPIRIT #1, Best Graphic Album reprint for ABSOLUTE DC: THE NEW FRONTIER, and Best Publication Design for ABSOLUTE DC: THE NEW FRONTIER. Though we weren't at the awards we drank a toast when we heard the news.

Now it's back to the drawing board. Deadlines loom!

j.

Wonder Woman! I love you!

Just because. I haven't drawn Wonder Woman in a while and I really missed her.

j.

Funny Books!

A while ago I drew a three page comic sequence for DC's line of Cartoon Network books. I missed the book when it originally came out but I've since received a few copies thanks to my kindly editor Rachel! For your enjoyment (and to update my blog, finally :) I've scanned the pages in full colour. Here they be:

The gags were written by the show creator Tom Warburton (who I've never met but I picture Patrick Warburton - Puddy from Seinfeld).

Have a super secret agent day!

j.